When the Beacon staff convened recently to chart out its third annual “Amazing Issue,” a familiar sense of awe fell over the newsroom as we marveled at the place we call home and the stories that inhabit it.
This remote postage stamp of Northwest Montana is populated with a cast of intrepid characters whose heroism has generated a mythology all unto its own. Its landscape is scored with sprawling rivers and glacial lakes inhabited by prehistoric fish species that navigate geological and ecological phenomena. A vast network of pinnacle-studded summit routes are pioneered by courageous climbers drawn to unknown heights, as well as critters who unlock the steep limestone chimneys and ledge systems with effortless grace.
In our line of work, we meet these people every day, and learn of the feats they accomplish or endure, the species they study in an effort to help us all co-exist, and the ideas that have helped create and preserve our inhabitable patch of paradise.
Rather than attempt to demystify the region’s arcane riddles or offer a definitive catalog of its astonishments, our “Amazing Issue” offers a few vignettes that we hope capture the striking feats, facts and features of this remote corner of the Treasure State.
It is home to Glacier National Park and Flathead Lake, to super-athletes and survival tales, a place of unrivaled engineering feats like the Going-to-the-Sun Road, Hungry Horse Dam and the Great Northern Railway, and a suite of species who inhabit the inhospitable terrain much as they did a century ago.
We offer these snapshots of amazing accomplishments to provide a glimpse of the awe-inspiring wonders that surround us, and as a reminder not to take those surroundings for granted.
After all, we live on an amazing planet, populated with people who accomplish remarkable feats every day, on a landscape defined by geologic wonders carved out by time, and alongside species that have existed for millennia.
Wow. That’s amazing.
Shocked in Glacier Park
Kalispell man recounts the day he survived lightning strike near St. Mary Falls
By Justin Franz
On Wednesday, July 17, 2013, a schoolteacher from Georgia was on vacation in Glacier National Park when his sunny stroll to St. Mary Falls was hampered by an afternoon thunderstorm.
Smeltzer’s Streak
Whitefish business owner approaches 4 years of running every single day
By Tristan Scott
When Matthew Smeltzer found out that his wife was going into labor with their second daughter, he laced up his shoes and padded down the driveway for a 3.1-mile run. The 39-year-old Whitefish business owner didn’t want to end his burgeoning record of running at least five kilometers every single day.
The Biggest Fish You’ve Never Seen
Kootenai River white sturgeon are a rare, massive and mysterious creature
By Tristan Scott
The wild Kootenai River white sturgeon is a toothless behemoth from the days of the dinosaurs that can live to be 100 years old, a prehistoric specimen characterized by its large head, vacuum-like nose used for sucking up prey, armor-like scales, and colossal size – it can reach 19 feet long and weigh more than a ton.
The Flathead Lake Fight of 1943
Over 70 years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers proposed raising Flathead Lake by 30 feet, which would have consumed Somers, Polson and other communities
By Dillon Tabish
On July 8, 1943, as Allied Forces charged toward Hitler in the thick of World War II, Montana Congressman Mike Mansfield penned an urgent letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
“My Dear Mr. President: This is the most important letter I have ever written in my life …”
101 Months of Skiing
Nine years after embarking on an epic ski-bum quest, Craig Moore is still enjoying turns month after month throughout the Flathead Valley
By Dillon Tabish
Ski season just ended at Whitefish Mountain Resort and other winter destinations across the U.S., but it’s really just beginning for Craig Moore.